F*ck those guys! Click the link and grab one of these beauty shirts!
Great win for the Oilers this afternoon. They’re 2-0 in matinee games this season and I’m hoping they make it 3-0 tomorrow vs. Chicago. Koskinen and Caggiula definitely earned their pay and how about Leon Draisaitl? Who would’ve thought that he’d come alive like he has? Well, the answer is anybody who’s followed his career…
Elliotte Friedman dropped some interesting news for Oilers fans on Headlines this evening though…
Big week for Edmonton including this win today against Nashville. One potential roster move though. Zack Kassian has permission from the team to seek out a trade out of the city to try and find a fresh start. – Elliotte Friedman (HNIC)
There you have it but not really at the same time. More than one of my sources have told me that he wanted out last year as well and he wasn’t the only one. Can’t really blame him given how bad the team performed last year and the harassment not only he but other players received from Oilers “fans” in Edmonton.
Kassian has failed to regain the form that saw him single-handedly take over game 2 against the San Jose Sharks in the 2016 playoffs and has taken some untimely penalties this season that have resulted in goals against. He’s been healthy scratched and been talked to by the coaching staff in Edmonton but as it turns out the team is publicly putting his name out there now.
I’ll be sad to see him go because he’s given Oilers fans some really great memories. That said, there’s still time for him to salvage something in Edmonton.
As for potential teams interested, I’ve heard Florida and Dallas as well as possibly the Rangers. I know Bob Stauffer talked a lot about Carolina previously but at the moment they’re firing on all cylinders and I can’t see them messing with that. Besides, Zack Kassian isn’t going to draw into the Hurricanes lineup over Andrei Svechnikov who is currently the 4th line RW for the ‘Canes.
The return MIGHT be a draft pick but most likely a player in a similar situation who makes around the same money as Kassian.
Thoughts? What do you think about this? Let us know in the comments below!
Click the image above and get this sweet Leon’s parody shirt!Grab this sweet Nintendo parody shirt! Click the image above!A new season means a new design! Click the image above to get the new Pulju shirt!
What a loss that was for the Oilers eh? That loss reminded me of a time when jerseys were being tossed on the ice and bag-wearing fans were-a-raging! I seen some positives in that game but not enough. The team looks very uninspired and I don’t expect players like Drake Caggiula, Pat Maroon, or even Zack Kassian to survive the possible upcoming purge.
Disclaimer: As I say nearly every time I post something I’ve been passed along, you do not have to believe me. Everyone claims to know somebody connected to a professional hockey team in Canada. I just happen to as well. I can’t tell you who the sources are (of course) but I trust them and I’m not afraid to tell you because it’s no skin off of my back. Apart from all of that, it’s good entertainment and excellent water cooler talk. I’m not McKenzie, Dreger, Friedman, or LeBrun nor do I want to be. I just like sharing what I’ve been told.
So immediately after the game, I was given this text from one of my sources within the club,
“The Oilers brass is going to be having talks with both Darryl Sutter and Dave Tippett.”
WHOA!
I mean, the players have looked very uninspired but is firing the coach the answer. McLellan throws himself under the bus every night the Oilers lose but is he doing it too much? I would have no problem if he flat out said his players played like shit and need to get their games together or someone is going to sit. Nobody gets sat in the press box anymore and that used to be how you sent a message to a player that wasn’t “getting it”.
I’ve talked about Darryl Sutter in the past and Dave Tippett in Twitter conversations and IF the Oilers were to let McLellan and his staff go, I wouldn’t have any problems with either of these men being hired but one does have to ask if Sutter is past his best-before date.
What do you think? Personally I’d like to toss Todd Nelson’s name out there.
Click the pic and grab a 16-bit McDavid tee!
A few minutes later I was sent this message,
“Peter Chiarelli is also on the hot seat”.
Hmmm, big if true. I mean is the Oilers’ brass bowing to the pressure of a rabid Oilers fanbase right now?
The Oilers went from a 70pt team to a team that amassed over 100pts last season. Both Todd McLellan and Peter Chiarelli were up for major awards and 21 games into the next season and they’re both being reviewed now?
I still wonder how you can blame Chiarelli for players who are slumping like Klefbom and Talbot. Does Chiarelli get equal praise for the resurgence of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and the emergence of Darnell Nurse? It’s BS that he’s getting piled on like this for things that are out of his control. Do you really think that having Eberle and Pouliot on the team would prevent other players from slumping? Come on, use your head.
Now, THAT being said, Peter Chiarelli did have a reputation of not being afraid to move young players before he was hired in Edmonton and we know what he’s done so far because there were others who couldn’t or wouldn’t move any of the young players in an attempt to kick-start the team. As soon as Chiarelli moves one, the teams luck changes. Weird.
Chiarelli has built this team to compete in the Pacific and to date, the Oilers have played Pacific division teams a grand total of THREE TIMES!!! Going forward every game vs. the Pacific teams is a 4pt game. The bad news is they will only play Pacific division teams 3 times between now and January 2nd…
Click the image to purchase this tribute to Milan Lucic!
On an individual basis, it’s my belief that the men in charge are unhappy with the underperforming Matt Benning, Drake Caggiula, and the newly acquired Ryan Strome.
My retort to that is that Benning/Caggiula are suffering from a sophomore slump and Ryan Strome has been stapled to the 3rd line since the second game of the preseason. What kind of expectations did they have for him if they were going to play him there, I mean he’s got 8pts from there and I’d say that’s pretty decent considering the Oilers record.
I do have to wonder if Darryl Katz would ok these moves as Chiarelli and McLellan are on some serious tickets and if I’m not mistaken they’ve got 2 years left on their contracts and both are over $4M per year…
What are your thoughts? Should the GM get another trade? Should he axe McLellan and try to spark something? Or should Bob Nicholson step in and go scorched Earth? Let us know in the comments below!
Click the image and head over to our Teepublic shop to grab some sweet BLH merch.
Below I’m going to re-post a blog from yesterday that I think ties in well with the above radio clips from Elliotte Friedman and Ryan Rishaug speaking to how much it could cost the Edmonton Oilers to re-sign hulking winger Pat Maroon. I talk about what I think a fair price for Pat Maroon would be, how that would affect other players on the roster like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jesse Puljujarvi, and a comparable for Maroon.
If you read it already, then there’s no need to scroll down unless you want to do it again 🙂
Please visit the Beer League Heroes Youtube channel and subscribe! I’m going to try and focus more attention there this season and by subscribing you’ll be the first to know when a new video is up!
Enjoy!
TSN’s Ryan Rishaug sends out a tweet this morning that says there’ve been some preliminary talks regarding a new contract for Pat Maroon, there’s interest on both sides to get things done, and the term/$$$ will be “tricky”.
I like that both camps are digging into this early and I’m hoping they can sign a new deal sooner than later. I’ll try to keep this short.
Now Lowetide believes if Maroon buries another 25 this year, he’ll be up around the $4.5M mark whereas David Staples is of the opinion that if Maroon goes for the “hometown discount”, that the Oilers might be able to get him down around $3.25M but there’ll need to be some term AND a no-trade clause to discourage the Oilers from dealing Maroon half-way into his new deal to a bottom dweller like NJ.
The analytics community has predictably hopped all over this as well:
Bad contracts to Lucic, Russell, and Maroon would be really, really difficult to overcome.
Not many players have been able to find themselves consistently on the wing of Connor McDavid’s line. In fact, Pat Maroon has been the most consistent. It’s common knowledge that these generational types are hard to find linemates for. Just ask the Penguins.
The good thing for Maroon AND the Oilers is that the coach and GM are big fans of his play and his demeanor off the ice. To add to that, he makes sure that no liberties are taken with Connor and he loves playing in Edmonton.
Something else that works in Maroon’s favor is the Oilers LW depth going into the season:
Maroon
Lucic
Jokinen
Caggiula
Slepyshev
Khaira
Kailer Yamamoto (Capfriendly has him listed as a C/LW)
Brad Malone
Kirill Maksimov
Tyler Benson
Who’s coming up through the system that could replace Maroon in 2018/19? Drake Caggiula? Kailer Yamamoto? I don’t see it.
Big Rig could name his dollar and Chiarelli, since he tends to overpay for the players he likes, would probably do it. Not always the smartest choice but he gets his men that way.
So what happens to Nuge?
It depends on the price point at which Maroon signs for, no?
I know that the brass really like Nuge and with the new faceoff violation penalty being “introduced” teams are going to need more than one guy per line capable of taking a faceoff, but they really like Maroon too and it makes me wonder if they’d be willing to part with a high-end prospect like Jesse Puljujarvi to keep both of them.
“Puljujarvi doesn’t make enough to balance the books if he’s traded alone!!!”
I’m well aware and that’s why the team trading for him would have to take a contract, Andrej Sekera’s or Kris Russell’s.
“But clauses…”
NMC and NTC are like suggestions. Just because they’re in the contract doesn’t mean they can’t be waived.
The reason I said Puljujarvi is because Chiarelli has a track history of dealing young players who have draft pedigree and there’s this Yamamoto kid making life difficult for everyone involved.
Taylor Hall
Tyler Seguin
Phil Kessel
Blake Wheeler
Nail Yakupov
I’m sure you’re all familiar with these players. Most of them have gone on to have blossoming careers with other teams because Chiarelli moved them. By the beginning of 2018/19, will that list include Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or Jesse Puljujarvi though?
So what do you do?
If I’m the GM, I’m probably dealing Nuge and hoping for a deal like the Sergachev/Drouin deal that took place this summer. There are some other RFAs that need to get paid and long-term it’s not in the Oilers best plans to have a $6M player in the bottom 6 unless he’s doing what Phil Kessel does for the Penguins aka scores 35+ a year.
I know that Carolina needs a top 2 centre and Arizona needs one as well. They have lots of cap room and some nice prospects too… Just saying.
I like Puljujarvi enough to hold onto him and see him through another contract. So I don’t want to trade him. There’s just too much potential there to justify dealing him before he turns 20 years old.
Patrick Maroon was/is just the right player for the Edmonton Oilers who came in and just the right time for both him and the team. When Chiarelli brought him in the team was really lacking the kind of player Maroon is. His hard-working, take-no-prisoners, hit-everyone-in-sight style really invigorated the team and the fanbase.
And it still does today.
I really like him as a player and a person. He says the right things and he plays the right way for me and I’d have no problem see the Oilers give him a 4-5 year deal WITH a NMC/NTC (Modify it how you like) worth a $4M per year.
That said, the Oilers probably look at Patrick Eaves deal ($9.45M over 3 years) and uses that to go from. Eaves is 4 years older mind you and that contract takes him to his 36th day of birth and Maroon is only 29 as we speak.
I dunno, feels like I’m all over the place here. I like Maroon and Puljujarvi more than Nuge at this point but if there’s a way to keep all three I’ll be ecstatic. It’s going to be a difficult task for Chiarelli and Co but I have faith the best thing for the team will be done. So I’ll leave it at that.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
This design also comes in… Maroon. Click the pic above and check it out!
Pick up this sweet tee and let the whole world know how much you love hockey’s favorite cheat!
I’m going waaaaaaay out on a limb right now with this but there were some subtle hints posted on the socials today that may or may not be pointing to Leon Draisaitl signing with the Oilers right soon.
If you’re wondering who Jiri Poner is, he’s a former scout and European player agent AND he’s seemingly a great friend to the Draisaitl family. Also, he played with Leon’s dad in 1992 and 1993 in Mannheim of the German league.
The Second:
Don’t want to alarm people, but that HFboards poster who calls stuff, said on the Draisaitl thread “ready for some news!”
I’m assuming this is the one and only Speedy Turtle who most recently called Jussi Jokinen signing with the Oilers.
Personally, I’d like to see him in an Oilers jersey long term but I really only see him AT THIS POINT, as a $7M-$7.5M player. That being said, if the contract was 8 years long and the first 2 years were at $7.5M and then increased each year to his desired yearly pay, that would be okay in my books.
But the bottom line is that the Oilers look to have a very good 1-2 down the middle, something that this franchise has been in absolute need of for a very. long. time…. And the defense doesn’t have a huge ticket on it nor is the goaltender making stupid money. I believe the ingredients are there and now it’s just a matter of tinkering with the roster’s complementary pieces to find the right combinations within its depth.
So there you have it. What do you think? Is anybody else anxious to see what the numbers are going to look like when it’s finally reported officially?
You’d never be tired in this! Pick it up by clicking the pic!
This morning Igor Eronko tweeted (below) out that longtime Oilers tweener and AHL superstar Anton Lander has agreed to terms with KHL club AK Bars and will start next season. According to thearticle‘s google translation, he’ll be one of the highest paid foreign players in the KHL. The article also said that nothing would be announced until the end of the season.
Back in October, a list was published on Sportsnet here and it detailed the 30 highest paid players in the KHL. The highest paid “foreign” player was Mikko Koskinen at $1.3M per year. So I guess that means Lander get a slight raise from his $987k that he makes here.
It’s too bad. I really liked Anton Lander and it’s a shame that his wheels never got that upgrade because the heart was there and he was quite good on the defensive side of the puck. Can’t forget about those faceoffs either as he was one of the best draw takers on the Oilers.
The Swede only mustered up 4pts in 22 games this season for Edmonton but a mind-blowing 46pts in 31 games for the Oilers farm club in Bakersfield.
